Shattered. Stunned. Faces frozen in fear and confusion. Onlookers and bystanders unable to make sense. Healed and harbored wrung dry of what was meant. Heroes stuck waiting for the inevitable break of this insulting façade.

But it never came.

Their enemy, their target, the one who killed their friends and escaped the death he was owed was just there… crying over his crimes.

Like some greenhorn villain who took things too far and couldn't deal with the reality of what he'd done. Or he never even knew till now. Till he saw the mark they had erected for their graves.

Either way, neither mattered. Fists tightened and stares hardened at the wholesale affront kneeling like a penitent seeking forgiveness. The hardest clamp from Buster's own empty hands, as she stared straight into a draining eye slit. The faint image of the eye behind it masked in the shadow and deluge of sorrow. Or brought about by expectations too engrained to be saw what was true. There was no glow like last time, no dim blue or horrid red signaling his power, just a stream of slowing down tears falling into hollow claws. And yet… and yet her stare lightened in those reflective drops. A trance broken, a weakening allowing her to think. But only enough to realize this was their chance at vengeance.

Her intent flashing to Tera, Depth, and Cauterizer, attentions drawn and plans silently conveyed. Attitudes focused away from blind retribution lock to more focused up actualization. This was what they had been waiting for. A glare even passed over the crowds still frozen in confusion, a necessary message to get them the hell back from what was about to happen. As slowly and quietly, the pieces started to move.

Shuffling, whimpering misled bystanders, silent sidesteps of betrayed heroes. They were all that was left, all he could hear. Like it was demanded of him. That he needed to know that they were coming to kill him again. But the only thing he felt by their tracking damn was the crushing weight of his own sins forcing him down. That inset demand just too weak. Too… familiar. Something inside demanding him to fight, demanding he get up. Demanding! Demanding! Demanding!! His metal claws gripped tight as he tried to shut this caustic thought out, tried to just suffer in peace. He had nothing left to fight for. There was no one left. There was nothing-

You have your promise…

He opened his eyes, suffering postponed as words and emotions hit him again. Almost separate from his own. It was just one… or two? They were hazy, disjointed, impossible to make out beyond what they gave off. Had the Garkah left someone behind? Was he hallucinating now?

His sorrowful stupor abated as he questioned his own senses, as he questioned his own mind, as the figure disappeared into the backdrop like he was never there in the first place. As the reality around him finally had his full attention.

Cauterizer maintaining distance on his right, the growing sizzle of his hands heating clear enough. Depthcharge behind him, hollow breathing and moving water outlining their intent. Terawatt making less of an attempt to hide, path shattering beneath her as twin metal stakes skewered the ground… and flashed power into highlighting existence. Electricity, negative ion flow, all coming inexorably from where it shouldn't just well up. She didn't just pull power on hand, she dragged it up like she just plugged into the Earth's core. Yet had none of the capacity to manage more than an instant. As lastly, Buster's contradictingly light steps slinking off behind the monument. Because she wanted her sword back.

'The one… she impaled me with.'

The phantom pain in his chest returned, trying to resurface that guilt as the memories returned in kind. Or at least parts of them. Enough to fill in the blanks and help him understand that he didn't want to ignore that sword… ever… aga-

'Grrrh! No…! That is not who I am.'

He forced back the phantom pain, the twisting abyss that once coated his will like tar. He was free of those insistent pangs and refused to fall again. He was not going to accept more guilt.

The air caught in tension at last, the city still too drained and scared to din, the heroes in place not wanting to be the first to strike. Seth was left with nothing but the beat of his own heart in his ear as he struggled for calm. It slowed as if by command, and the silent world opening up in too much detail.

Muscles tightening in anxious preparation. Light breaths masked as best they could be. Cloth and foam chafe, squeaking grips and seams. Stares that combed over him for even the slightest of movement, washing him and his in their own brands of revile and hate. All waiting for something to break, something to lose its focus, something to falter and receive retaliation en this masse. With the racing hearts and flaring nerves that those stares created, threatening everything should it all-

*crackle*

Come to course from Buster's greed for her sword.

*BFFFFFFFFFSSSSSSsshhh*

The release of compressed water shattered what was left of the silence, Depthcharge first to the draw. An arcing burst forward, like a controlled bottle rocket tired to a brick. Stupor and weight lost out as Seth shifted around, talons scratching up the path as a guard came up bracing. Dense foam met hardened metal, water weight falling on hard, and another burst of compression smacking like a mechanical pile driver. A halo of water spreading out in all directions, and steaming as Cauterizer pressed through. Glowing white hot hands set to grapple a recoiled guard, instead flash steamed the water left in its wake.

Seth accepted his recoil, let it shatter more path in his wake and throw him out of Cauterizer's path. A talon impacting the plaque behind and a scathing knee tearing him to a stop, as Depthcharge landed and locked down off their recoil. As Cauterizer only just came about off his attack. And as Terawatt shot in from the side. Another guard flashed about, side on as a staking left tried to skewer into the armor. Instead padded fist bunched and cracked, wrist lowered for the stakes and unprepared for impact. Seth swiveling and sliding down through, as the impromptu flying fist lost its inertia in a catastrophic spraining. And received more as that fist was grabbed along and whipped away. What was left of Tera's attack sending her rolling to the sidewalk.

The disparity should have been made clear by now, even weighed down by all this armor and a mountain of corpses he was faster than they were. But he refused to press this advantage as a talon stamped away from the grave rose him back to full. So they could keep trying and find themselves wanting.

Depthcharge burst in front, fist trailing water like an over drenched sponge. But their wake vaporized behind them. Another guard brought counter, foam and metal grazing off each other as he side stepped the hydraulic shot, right into Cauterizer hiding in the steamed up shadow. A leg dropped and the fiery slap sailed through the gap his broken horn used to occupy, momentum scraped to a stop facing all three of them now.

But Terawatt wasted no time smashing to the forefront. Something to prove electric in her charging glare. A possibly-broken wrist set haphazardly, but stakes held back and set to pile drive and claim her place here. As the one who would shut this monster down. Seth merely flexing another guard in the wash, slowing its roll out until-

*CLANG*

That guard slammed into her gauntlet mid swing. Stacks shot out in misfire as her attack was parried away. Her momentum betrayed her as she was stumbled passed, collision sidestepped again just in time-

*BFFFFSSSshhh*

For that still charged fist to reappear. Depthcharge had waited until they were as close as possible to release and rocked forward. But it STILL wasn't enough. Seth dropped a foot back, kept his inertia, and brought his arm wide as that fist passed just off his helmet's snout. A claw palming into Depth's shoulder in time to push them too hard off their attack, killing their balance and tossing them to sloshingly crash next to Tera. But that claw was finally grabbed and seared as it returned, metal finding its energetic state in Cauterizer's gritting grip.

Pressed and twisted counter to travel, elbow and shoulder made unwilling fulcrum for his entire body. But the moment made hanged, either in his perception or Seth's. The heat was pouring in, tried its best to send his meticulously alloyed plate into thermal runaway, but even that wasn't enough. Though that wasn't the real point, Cauterizer wanted him locked down and slowed in momentum. A moment won to the rest could use it. But he didn't have that kind of strength.

The moment returned as Seth yanked his arm back despite the hold, slipped it back parallel, and hooked his claw into Cauterizer's vest. He only had time to release his tenuous hold before getting whipped away stumbling at his teammates. Well off their own fumbles and so caught mid rally, catching and steadying but winced away from his still glowing hands. Awkward realigns and flaring tempers, being made fools of not sitting very well. As hardened stares returned with their posture.

He was toying with them, insulting them further, refusing to fight like the monster he was. Like the monster he is. The heroes glaring into those barren eye slits with a renewed hatred that carried beyond scorn, as their lured prey made a mockery of them. But this fight was far from over. Depthcharge's eyes burning like torches as their compressed fists spurted barely contained, Tera's grimaced face winced as she set her wrist back and arced borrowed electricity between stakes, and Cauterizer fury burned his expression to a hateful leer above the completely white hot burn of his hands. No more playing around.

And no more room to spare yourself.

Seth met those stares in kind, but felt more than their callous gaze. The people cowering, the crowds spattered about blaming him, fearing him, wanting nothing to ever do with him. Despite their accusatory glares they were still in danger of becoming collateral damage. Especially with this much powered force set to come down on him. But all this attention was a good thing to have in this regard. A talon lifted up, narrowly spiked that powered tension to hasty action, but deflated it as he side stepped slowly out of angle. An action mirrored in that reprising tension. Heroes following suite, stepping in unison to keep their angle and accept this precaution. At least their fury wasn't completely-

They don't deserve mercy…

That invasive thought returned, betrayed the silent posturing only cut by uniform steps and off stage greedy exertions against concrete. His vision tried to red shift, his wrath tried to rise as if pulled upon. But…

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

'That... Is not… Who I am!'

Despite his struggling, metal claws again straining against themselves. Like his body still knew he had to fight. Anything less and he'd die. Again. A stymied pull, just what could be hidden. The armor hardened, soaked and gorged on glutinously stolen electricity. Threaded flare coated his muscles, pulled taut in preparation. And the hollowed eyes of that metal terror finally glowed their initializing plasma blue. In the instant that angle ceased increasing. And became pure absolution for what needed come.

The path shattered under launching talon and unison kick off. Cauterizer's hands seared the air wide as he took the lead, but his stance was too wide to defend. A talon stomped down, rounded Seth in line, and acted as secondary booster. A full metal shoulder slamming chest and countered every bit of inertia and breath he had. And then some.

A building behind received a Cauterizer shaped hole in its façade, and the heroes truly felt their disparity as their formation was holed in an instant. Depthcharge pivoted regardless, compressed jets righting their disrupted stance. Terawatt left in the lurch, but quickly pouncing at Seth's back as he squared up on Depth. Just as that back lurched closer and an elbow came back high. Tera was denied, smacked in the face over Depth's assault. As their first swing whiffed where once there was armor, and that arm came back to attack in earnest.

But Depth was far more prepped for the brawl this always was, both hands laden and compressed and set in succession. Opposing fists, metal and foam, slammed into each other. Halos of water splashing out as that hydro driver shot, but only succeeded in matching its opposite.

Then the others met this sequence, clashing strikes countering each other in sparkling sprays. The air quaking and kicked to harsh beat, foam not enough to soften the blows, and water weight only lasting so long. A rising cacophony crescendoing into one last clash bereft of its compressed spray, recoil finally pushing through and knocking open a hole. One shaped perfect for a metal shin. Seth swung his leg out and caught them in the side, dried up heavy armor spared the damage but given too much force to weigh down. They were sent whizzing into the rebuilt buildings on the other side, at least only adding a window to the new repair bill. If not interior décor.

That armored leg followed through and rounded back as Tera roared in off her rebuke, all spikes arcing and demanding a taste of what they were brought here to take. So Seth might as well give it to them. A clawed fist crunched together to meet its opposite as he powered into her charge. But not as counter but to hammer them apart. Over extended stakes shattered as he dashed through them, invalidation in wholesale castration, invalidation in the face of real electric might. And an opening up to counter proper.

A scraping sidestepped, that claw unclenching and rounded back, right in line with her face. A flash of fear caught her in the shattered remains of her weapon, but was opposed by a flash of concern that was utterly alone. That claw whipped into her just as Seth dropped the both of them to the ground. Just below a sudden slab of oscillating metal cleaving where both once resided. Tera slammed down into the shattered path and Buster left to careen over with contradictory grace, blade spinning her about by sheer weight alone, bringing her to an air curling stop.

Those still relatively dim eyes found their glare again as he stood off his duck, a foot sliding under and kicking Tera's out of the way. Seth couldn't deny that this was a rematch overdue, and nothing was getting in the way of it.

Buster slid her gratuitous sword into battery, actions in concert with that vibrating monstrosity. But the images of that sword in Seth's head made it seem… shinier. A green hue exuding like a vibrant gleam, except now it just looked like normal metal that oscillated in place silently and violently. He was seeing it as it truly was, no obfuscation by the vibration, no false luster in drained senses. And he could see Buster's movements to control that demanding force.

Small flexes, counter movements so slight they barely get noticed, and all in time with each beat of that sword's mechanical heart. He wasn't about to deny her skill, but the look she gave said more than it should.

Fire wasn't enough, she was at the bounds of livid emotion. Vengeful fury, scornful hatred, a baleful stare that could turn the mightiest villain with the slightest shred of decency left in them into a repentant quivering mass. She wanted him dead, deader than dead. She wanted to rend him apart till there was nothing left to even bury in an unmarked grave. And Seth couldn't do anything more than accept that hate. Because he'd fallen just as far, and allowed it to spread.

He could see Phazer's kindred fury reflected as he stared back, vengeance passed down the line until someone ended it once and for all. And he could remember Aegis' fury across that easing shield, scorned warnings burning as they faced him down… And returned just enough of him to stop before it all crashed down to singularity.

He caused this, he was at fault for its creation. It was something he had to atone for as well. But he couldn't allow it the outcome it demanded with every fiber of Buster's being. He had too much to answer for, and no ground to stand on. He couldn't let this end here.

The air became hard to breathe, no one wanting to release the strain building between. Padded boots grinding the path to dust under foot, metal talons flexed their grip deeper. The overlong sword hilt creaked in wrung out leather, claws cracked the armor between them. The thrumming mechanical heart revved under wrathful holds, and inner layers segmenting to start up that haphazard pulse to kill it once again. Invasive thoughts tried to press through, even as they passed power to the generator. This something, this part of him demanded just as much death as she did. Revenge for revenge. Seth could do little to quiet it.

But it was not the one in control anymore.

Everything finally snapped with the unprepared path. Twin bursts of concrete loosed without care or concern. The bystanders buffeted and showered, but the dust was never going to settle. A clawed right hurtled round, sword swung in grand cleave, and a pulse set with none of the callous malice it carried about before. Only determined focus to rip this misaligned image apart.

Metal met metal again, but this time the recoil was just hers to have. Both sword and Buster were swung back around, as the reverberating tone of a true meeting filled everyone's ears, filled everyone's hearts, and flashed the city to life in its wake. A halo aurora of over eager ions, and an EMP more locally caustic. She'd only known the tired hell he'd been lost in, that he'd fallen in to. It was time she learned what he truly could do.

Talons skidded away unstoppable inertia, as Buster was spun counter. Mechanical heart not so arrhythmic, but feeling the lurch. Hasty reorientation brought another cleave around like so many before, but the other claw was already haymakering in with all the built up spring.

The sword was blasted, the path was blasted, the windows unfortunate showering the road in glitter, and the air cleared of whatever was left in it.

Seth slammed a palm counter as the now uncontrolled sword swung back again with its owner only along for the ride. It clanged off in sudden stop, whiplashing Buster and stumbling her back in control. Which did nothing for her wrathful glare.

A dizzy step and titanic whipping away of her blade righted her, but the grit in her stare unhinged at the defied revenge. Like a tiger given a baseball bat, she roared back in, one handed swiping her overgrown sword from on high with none of the stable control she'd physically preached before. Or at least none Seth could see.

The swipe grazed down his armored shoulder through the horn gap, sparking ineffectually as it tore at what got in its way. It whipped back with complete abandon, wavering like a poorly built wing. And clanging off that shoulder with none of the give and force it expected to still have. She was just killing her own edge in her disparity fueled desperation with none of her technique spared. The sword itself the one getting in the way.

A flick sliced it back up, the ground between them gouged as the blade was spun high at her right, both hands bringing it down again. But all it won were more sparks, recoil, and blunted edge as it impacted the opposite collar like that bat to a block of concrete.

Her grip tightened beyond what her handle could take, her stare turned almost inside out as her blunted blade came back. She was losing herself to her wrath…

She was falling into her own abyss.

Her once sharpened mountain of vibrating metal trying desperately to catch up with her rhythm, but she was out of her own control now. Like a storm of blades, she swiped at the armor, at the terror she'd already killed once, at the monster that killed her friends, at the pain she couldn't find any other remedy for than killing it dead all over again. But all it won was a storm of sparks in kind, and callous spalling of what was hers.

The sword beat against the outer plates more like a club than a blade. Friction and flaking steel arcing away off every strike. But Seth weathered that horrid storm, smacked around inside his hollowed suit, few comforts left to him. And little blocking out the real pain coming through with every strike.

Beneath the vanity, the pride, the muscle. She was hurting just as much as he was. This was more than grief, but it still burned just as hot. She was falling deeper, liable to never come back up, to never see the resolution only she knew she deserved. She would burn that pain away and hollow herself out like… Like the abyss in him.

Like him when this pain was first started.

Like it was a disease passed along out of malice and spite and-

'Fuck!! You!! That is not… Who I AM!!!'

A talon crunched the path to dust, recoiled that wanton storm of contagious fury, locked Seth into the only action that could end this once and for all. Buster stumbled back again, eyes practically rolled over in their sockets, teeth cracking under uncontained fury. But her senses kept something aloft and on target. Both hands slamming the titanic blade home at her hip, a foot shooting back and burying itself for traction. For a grand skewer was demanded to end this once and for all!

"yyyyyyyYYYYYYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

The path atomized under foot, the air sliced before it could get out of the way, and all that torrential hatred released like a nitrous fueled rocket. All right into a waiting chest that would feel the sting of impaling death again… If not for the left that pounded down upon that wrath dulled edge.

Like a poorly made trebuchet, the blade sliced down into the path under force beyond what was put in. The handle bunching up Buster's grip into her armpit just as that stabilizing talon pulled Seth down into line, the right hurtling up low and fast. Slamming the underside of the blade, kicking this throwing arm into action, and launching the projectile that had refused to fly before. Buster was catapulted over, iron grip still too tight on her handle even as it twisted into her arm. End over end she sliced and cracked the path on her back, one grip finally lost with the air in her lungs. But the concrete was not given any peace.

Talons scathing it apart, exploding it to proper devastation, sending Seth to follow his shot. Momentum and training twisting Buster back to her feet and spun her about, right into the flying armored knee aimed for her gut. Emptied of everything and denied gravity, she flew again, bouncing off the concrete and hurtling toward her failed trap. Without her blade.

The clawed right shadowed that knee, countered iron grip with monstrous, stole the instrument of Seth's guilt ridden pain away from its lost wielder. The flying knee cashing in its momentum, tearing the path a new rut as the right whipped the humming blade to the side of its new master. So he could see it spared.

But Seth could feel its heart with truer clarity. Feel its rhythm and thrum and… An inquisition of threads snaking through the mechanism that fueled this monstrosity. Traced all the way, feeling the beat like a heart overclocked. Like living metal. Like… Like an actual living sword!

The hum, the resonance, he could understand it. A different genre all its own, but so much intent and emotion conveyed. Yet the only thing he felt from it… was fear. Fear at what he would do with it, fear of him and all he bore. But it wasn't just afraid of this sudden paradigm shift. It was afraid of losing its wielder. Of losing Buster to herself. Even…

Even if she barely understood what it said to her.

A new anger welled up, perception slowed realization driving his grip tighter on his confiscated blade. And driving his hum louder and louder through it. Till it knew that it was heard. This much care, this much affection left to wallow as its only bearer burned herself away without even knowing. This green hued blade shifting under his control, a red gleam rising up in intensifying vibration, the heart running faster than it ever thought it could. And the maw refused to be silent at this deplorable dereliction!

"rrrrrRRRAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!"

The path atomized again in sliced patterns, as Buster's back finally crashed into the monument she'd erected in arrogant hope, and her eyes finally seeing her own blade come for her for what her wrath had done.

A pillar of gleaming red, carried by the source of her own fear and hate. A vengeful skewer for what was done to it. Allowing no escape of the consequences of her actions. No hope of anything but to see it come. Like the truth of that name was real. That he had become what they feared and reviled him for.

Speed unnatural, strength beyond acceptance, refusing to die like it should over and over and over again. Tossing her, losing her in an all-consuming despair of this artificial return. A cowering guard the only reflex as that pillar once hers screamed, rent air to the buzz of thousands of oscillations. And stabbing malicious right through to the vain monument of her regrets.

With all that her vengeance could bear for her, coming to fruition in its sudden stop.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.